May 24 2016City amongst final group of cities selected in competitive grant process, gaining access to international network of tools and partnerships to build resilience.

“Being named one of this year’s 100 Resilient Cities is an honour and excellent opportunity for the City to establish an even stronger resiliency strategy, drawing on and sharing support and successes from around the world,” says Mayor Gregor Robertson.

Mayor Gregor Robertson welcomed an announcement from 100 Resilient (100RC) selecting Vancouver among the final cohort of international cities invited to join the network of 100 cities at the forefront of building urban resilience.

As a member of the 100RC Network, our city will gain access to tools, funding, technical expertise, and other resources to build resilience to the social, economic and environmental challenges of the 21st century. Importantly, funding from 100RC will enable us to appoint a Chief Resilience Officer, to lead the development of a citywide Resilience Strategy.

"Vancouver has a head start as a highly adaptive city, due to our nation-leading green economy built on innovation and policies that are building a healthy, liveable, sustainable city,” says Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Being named one of this year’s 100 Resilient Cities is an honour and excellent opportunity for the City to establish an even stronger resiliency strategy, drawing on and sharing support and successes from around the world. Vancouver will be in a better position to tackle the key initiatives and challenges most important to our residents, like housing affordability, social connectedness, emergency preparedness and climate change.”

About 100RC

100RC is a $164 million effort founded by The Rockefeller Foundation in 2013 to unite and support 100 cities from around the world that are committed to developing resiliency strategies. 100RC supports the cities with financial and consulting assistance as well as the opportunity to collaborate with other 100RC cities. This year in the third and final cohort, 325 cities applied to join the 100RC network.

Michael Berkowitz, 100RC President said, “Vancouver was chosen because of its leaders’ commitment to resilience-building and the innovative and proactive way they’ve been thinking about the challenges the city faces. We’re excited to get to work.”

“For us, a resilient city has good emergency response and meets its citizens’ needs,” Berkowitz continued. “It has diverse economies and takes care of both its built and natural infrastructure. It has effective leadership, empowered stakeholders, and an integrated planning system. All of those things are essential for a resilient city.”

Developing a Resilience Strategy

The City will appoint a new Chief Resilience Officer, funded by 100RC for two years, who will establish a resilience steering committee and oversee the design and coordination of a Resilience Strategy, bringing together cross-department initiatives already established.

“We have been working on resilient strategies for some time now, including significant investments in emergency management, earthquake preparedness, local food, and the healthy city strategy” said City Manager Sadhu Johnston. “The 100RC funding and technical support will provide the capacity and network to integrate our various efforts into a comprehensive resilience strategy. We look forward to this collaboration.”

About 100 Resilient Cities, pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation

100 Resilient Cities (100RC), pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation helps cities around the world become more resilient to social, economic, and physical challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century.

100RC provides this assistance through:

Funding for a Chief Resilience Officer in each of our cities who will lead the resilience efforts